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Menlo-Atherton's Troy Franklin (11) heads for the end zone and the touchdown against Wilcox to give his team a 33-28 lead in the fourth quarter of their Central Coast Section Open Division I championship football game at Independence High in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. Menlo-Atherton defeated Wilcox 33-28.

Menlo-Atherton's Troy Franklin (11) celebrates scoring a touchdown with teammates Joey Olshausen (9) and Jake Wang (21) in the second quarter of their Central Coast Section Open Division I championship football game against Wilcox at Independence High in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

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Menlo-Atherton's Troy Franklin (11) catches a pass against Wilcox's Ryan Cooper Jr. (1) for a touchdown in the second quarter of their Central Coast Section Open Division I championship football game at Independence High in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Menlo-Atherton's wide receiver Troy Franklin catches a 26-yard pass and scores a touchdown against Palo Alto cornerback Damion Richard-valencia during the second quarter of the Central Coast Section Open Division I semifinal at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, on Saturday, November 24, 2018. Menlo-Atherton defeated Palo Alto 17-7. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

Menlo-Atherton's wide receiver Troy Franklin walks on the field during a break against Sacred Heart during the fourth quarter of the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton, California, on Saturday, October 20, 2018. Menlo Atherton defeated Sacred Heart 30-0. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)

Jim Gensheimer / Bay Area News Group

Menlo-Atherton's Troy Franklin (11) celebrates after scoring a touchdown on a kickoff return against Los Gatos in the first quarter at Los Gatos High School on Friday, Sept. 15, 2017, in Los Gatos, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group)

ATHERTON — Troy Franklin missed the season opener for the Menlo-Atherton football team with an injury. He proceeded to sit out Week 2 because of a … bagel?

“Ever since then I haven’t eaten a bagel,” said Franklin, who fell victim to an unforeseen allergic reaction. “It’s pretty crazy.”

“I’ve been in M-A long enough, we specialize in weird for some reason,” M-A coach Adhir Ravipati said. “Nothing really surprises me at this point.”

That includes a controversial 325-mile trip to the Oregon border last week in order to earn a spot in the CIF state Division 3-AA championship game.

M-A (12-2), as the NorCal champion, will need to travel fewer than five miles to host Lincoln (11-4) of San Diego on Saturday at Sequoia High in Redwood City. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

“That’s the good thing for me and our teammates,” Franklin said. “Our family all gets to come out, our friends get to see us play and then show out in the state game, so it’s a pretty big thing for all of us.”

Pretty big things are expected from Franklin, even if he’s only a 15-year-old sophomore.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound wide receiver showed up as the top recruit in the state according to 247Sports in its initial Top100 rankings for the class of 2021— No. 20 overall in the nation and third-best at his position.

“With the time I have, we just took it as a great, humbling achievement,” Franklin said. “We just have to keep working so I can keep that spot.”

Only a few games into his freshman year, San Jose State came through with the first scholarship offer.

The current list of schools extends to seven, including a trio from the Pac-12 in Arizona State, Oregon State and Utah — plus Miami, Iowa State and Hawaii.

“His upside and his ceiling is really something you don’t see very often,” Ravipati said. “I’ve also tried to temper expectations on the recruiting side with him and I’ve told a lot of schools to kind of, ‘Hey, let’s see where he’s at after his sophomore year.’ One thing I want is for Troy to kind of have some time to be a kid and grow up and focus on himself and not have all of this extra pressure and outside noise.

“His recruiting is going to be pretty crazy. He’s going to have everybody in the country offering him and this offseason I think you’re going to see a lot of schools are going to pull the trigger on him.”

Franklin, who can be found Twitter at @dosfordos1, is a witness to the recruiting process going viral on social media.

“You can basically see it on Twitter, offers after offers,” Franklin said. “But everything starts first in the classroom, gotta get that right and stay on top of your classwork. From then on, everything will just flow.”
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Does the hype match the production on the field?

Just ask Eureka, which lost for the first time last week after Franklin found the end zone three times in a 27-20 victory at McKinleyville High — touchdown catches of 69 and 13 yards, then a game-winning 70-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.

Seven days earlier in the Central Coast Section Open Division I championship game, Franklin not only caught an 11-yard TD, he took a pitch and made multiple players miss on a 17-yard scramble that completed a 33-28 comeback against previously unbeaten Wilcox.

“I don’t think this fazes him, I think it’s something he’s used to,” Ravipati said. “And I think part of it, too, is he’s so young, he’s still a little naïve to everything, right? I don’t think the lights are too big for him. He played his first high school game against Bellarmine on a Comcast televised game and had over 100 yards receiving, and your stars shine the brightest when the lights are on.”

“I just love making catches, losing my defenders and making my team happy,” Franklin said. “Big moments is when you have to show up, so I just try to stay composed and never get too big-minded about what’s happening.”

As a 10-year-old, Franklin was one of the youngest players on his team to travel to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida for the 2013 Pop Warner Super Bowl.

It didn’t take long for Ravipati to take notice of this incoming freshman during summer practices at M-A.

“His presence, his athleticism, just his comfort on the field, you could tell that he was a special talent,” Ravipati said. “He’s always had great football instincts, he’s a really talented player naturally, but he’s starting to really learn the game and starting to understand the mental part of it, which I think combined with his physical ability is going to make him really dangerous.”

Last year, Franklin finished with 34 catches for 585 yards and seven TDs, plus a 90-yard kickoff return to the house.

As a sophomore, he’s crossed the goal line 16 times, so far — 11 through the air, four on the ground and once on a 99-yard pick-6.

Oh, yes. Franklin also spends time at free safety because of his ability to cover a lot of ground with his long strides.

“He’s so tall and long, that’s the thing about him is you don’t quite realize how big his frame is,” Ravipati said. “And part of the thing is usually guys that size don’t usually have the ability to accelerate or have the one-step explosiveness of a smaller, shiftier, quicker guy.”

As he continues to work on technique, such as how to use his hands for a release at line of scrimmage, the Bears rely on a go-to play inside the red zone.

“One of my favorite routes to throw his way is fade, because I have a lot of faith in the fact that he’ll catch it,” M-A quarterback Jack Alexander said.

“You really don’t know what’s about to happen until it kind of happens,” Franklin said. “So, you just try to do everything right, everything you’re taught and then, also, through the regular, God-given talent just to go up and grab the ball.”

His offseason program will begin before that in the weight room, while the recruiting process will intensify this summer.

“That’s kind of the scary part, he hasn’t come even close to reaching his potential as a football player,” Ravipati said. “He’s got a really bright future and I’ve said this before and I’ve said it to him, Troy will play football as long as Troy wants to play football and is willing to put the work in and willing to commit himself to doing the right things.”

First things first, he intends to secure M-A’s first-ever state title in football.

“The season kind of went by fast,” Franklin said. “It’s a little extended, also. But overall I’m just grateful that we made it.”

Vytas Mazeika is a sports reporter at The Daily News based out of Menlo Park. He covers athletics at every level, from high school to Stanford to the pros. He also designs the sports pages and copy edits for The Daily News print edition. Mazeika graduated from Carlmont High in 1994 and earned an English bachelor's degree from UCLA.